


ties

by clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: DJWifi, Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff and Humor, adrialya, adrialyanette, adrirose, chlonath, like 30 drabbles ha, ninette, the rarepairs are, with occasional feels and ust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 00:58:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10843158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: A really terrifying number of very short drabbles done in response to a tumblr meme, now collected here for the sake of keeping a vaguely accurate word count on my account.Enjoy?





	ties

**Author's Note:**

> i... don't even know
> 
> drabbles are marked by ship and not much else, dialogue repeats because it was a dialogue meme and i took doubles, and the rating swings around a T — a couple more raunchy than others

> Ladynoir

“Then… just once,” Ladybug agreed in a whisper, and then she kissed him.

Somehow, it didn’t occur to Chat that this might be a mistake until her fingers were carding through his hair and her breath was puffing hot against his cheek, sparking an electric, insatiable craving for more in his blood.

She hummed low in her throat, tilting her head, arching, pressing into him, and he found himself scrambling to meet her halfway, trembling from the inside out.

Ladybug had always been more than he could handle.

Five long seconds of nothing but the stroke of her soft lips, the delicate flutter of her eyelashes, the roaring of his pulse in his ears, and Chat was _goner_.

(He’d been a goner before, but now he knew what this was like — now he knew that her kiss was a _drug_ and now he knew that he’d never stop dreaming of another hit.)

“There,” she whispered as she drew back. She flashed him a wobbly, dreamy little smile with reddened lips and said, in a voice just wrecked enough to almost send him to his knees, “N- _now_ will you stop bugging me, kitty?”

There was a long moment of silence as Chat did battle with the overwhelming tumult of _emotion_ in his chest, and then he let out a long, shaky sigh.

“If… if that’s what you want.”

Ladybug blinked, long and slow, then opened her mouth and closed it again.

“…Yeah,” she said finally, “I… do.”

“…Okay,” Chat said, and firmly told his clamoring heart that it wasn’t uncertainty that he’d heard in her voice.

* * *

> Adrinette

“Tell me a secret.” 

Marinette stared at her hands, holding them up against the clear, starry sky, and considered.

She could tell Adrien she was Ladybug… and then she’d reap the consequences on all sides.

She could tell Adrien she was in love with him… and then he’d never look at her the same way again.

She could tell Adrien how much she’d dreamed of a moment _just like this…_

She dropped her hands back to her stomach. 

“Once I got someone akumatized by I accidentally stealing their phone.”

…That was too heavy for the moment, probably.

Laying beside her on the cool, damp grass, Adrien let out a long, loud snort. “Oh my _god_.”

Marinette covered her too-warm face and mumbled, “I didn’t _mean_ to, but…”

Adrien had tumbled into full-on laughter by then, bright and scandalized and delighted, and Marinette relaxed into her choice, no matter how embarrassing it was.

 _Worth it_ , she thought as Adrien’s warmth settled something deep inside her. _So totally worth it._

* * *

 

> Marichat

“You fainted… straight into my arms,” Chat heard as the world slowly swirled back into focus. “You know, if you wanted my attention, you didn’t have to go _that_ far.” 

The funniest thing about this, he thought, blinking awake to his pretty classmate’s rakish grin, was that that exact line could have — _should_ have — come out of his own mouth.

Instead, here he was, the fainting maiden in his shining knight’s arms, being… flirted with? By one of the most talented, hilarious, _awkward_ people he knew.

He should probably be flattered, but he was too busy trying not to laugh.

“Sorry, I thought flowers were overdone.”

Her bark of amusement was loud enough to be painful, but so _charming_ he couldn’t find it in himself to mind. She set him back on his feet, swallowing down the tail end of her sniggers.

“For future reference,” she said, smiling wide, “I like daisies.”

“I’ll remember that,” Chat promised, dropping into an elaborate bow as soon as he was sure of his balance. “Thanks for the assist, princess.”

“Anytime.”

* * *

> Ladrien

“I… I think I’m in love with you, and I’m terrified.” 

…Of all the things Adrien had expected when he’d asked his partner what was wrong, that hadn’t made it into the top fifty. It hadn’t even made it into the top hundred. Or the—

He swallowed. “W-what?”

Ladybug had her hands over her face, sprawled out on his bed where he’d put her in his attempts to play therapist for his stressed out friend. “I’m… I don’t… I love you.”

The leap Adrien’s heart gave rattled his teeth with the force of it.

“…Oh.”

She curled up on her side to face him, looking tiny and fragile and half-broken already, and said, in a funny, almost defeated tone, “I’m in love with you.”

Adrien didn’t realize he was reaching for her until her fist was fitting into the palm of his hand. One breath to steel himself, and…

“If… if it makes you feel any better, I’ve been in love with you… almost since I met you.”

She hiccuped a laugh and curled closer, opening her fist so she could twine her fingers with his.

There was a pause, and then: “What… what do I _do_ with this?”

“With me or with you?” 

“With _me_ ,” she whispered half to him and half to the night. “It’s… it’s _so much._ What do I _do_ with all of this?”

“Well,” said Adrien, because his heart was in his mouth and he couldn’t feel his legs, but he still knew what it was like to be there, and knew how much he would have given for a confidant at the beginning of it all, “I mean, usually people do stuff like… date, or something. K-kiss and… spend time together.”

It took seven (loud, erratic) thumps of his heart for her to respond.

“That’s… simple.”

The dubiousness in her voice startled a laugh out of him, through the too-tight knot of emotion in his throat. “Not like I’d know or anything.”

“Hm,” said Ladybug, at a timbre that told him that if he could see her, she’d be bright red by now.

“Say, Ladybug…”

“Yeah?”

He grinned down at her through the dark and squeezed her fingers. “Wanna go on a date?”

He only counted six heartbeats this time, and then she shifted and there was something warm and damp pressing to his knuckles and— _had she just kissed his hand?!_

“Sounds like a plan, mon minou,” she murmured, low and sultry and rolling and _mind-blowing_ and—

“Great,” said Adrien, very, very faintly, and sagged against his headboard, feeling smoke pour out of his ears.

…It was maybe occurring to him that, for all that he’d hoped and wished and prayed that Ladybug would one day return his feelings, he might not actually survive the reality of it.

* * *

> Marichat

“Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?” 

“Oh shut up,” Marinette grumbled, but didn’t _quite_ stop smiling. “I mean, you can’t be a drag _all_ the time, can you?”

—shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit—

He was going to figure her out at this rate.

He was going to figure out her identity and then Tikki was going to kill her — either that, or he was going to figure out that she wasn’t half as tough as she pretended to be, and she wouldn’t be able to live with herself anymore.

“Hmmmm…”

_Shit._

“Didn’t you have an akuma or something to take care of?” she asked, maybe feeling a little bit desperate. If he figured _either_ of those things out…

He smiled at her, just a shade too knowing for comfort. “So I do. Sorry for disturbing you, little lady.”

_Ugh._

* * *

> Ladynoir

“We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and _feel the rain?”_

Ladybug found herself laughing at the sheer incredulity in her partner’s voice as she danced backwards into the downpour. “C’mon Chat, live a little!”

When she looked back, Chat was still standing under the overhang she’d left him in, wearing an expression that quite clearly said, _but **rain**._

Cats would be as cats would be, she supposed, and closed her eyes as she tilted her head back, welcoming the fresh spring shower on her face.

There was something very settling about thunderstorms.

She stumbled back to where Chat was waiting when she’d finally had her fill, shaking out her hair and shivering pleasantly. 

“Ready to g—” she started, and then looked up and found her breath stuttering to a halt in her chest.

He was just… _looking_ at her, an awed little smile hovering over his lips. 

For one long _breathless_ moment, she was absolutely certain he was about to kiss her.

And then he coughed and glanced away, face falling into something a little more normal. 

“Back to patrol?”

Ladybug took a moment to breathe away the disappointed ache in her chest.

“…Back to patrol,” she agreed, mouth tingling with loss of contact it had never had.

* * *

> Adrinette

“Have you lost your damn _mind!?_ ”

“Look,” said Marinette, flustering at Alya’s outburst, “it’s not actually that much! Just one little lineup and I might be chosen to have my designs modeled by _Adrien.”  
_

“ _Girl,_ ” said Alya, rubbing her temples as she looked at the requirements of the contest. 

And, okay, maybe it was a _little_ much, but… _if_ she could just _win…_

Adrien, aiming bedroom eyes at the camera as he lounged in a leather jacket she’d designed.

Adrien, smiling softly as he wrapped a sweater of her make tighter around himself.

Adrien, posing in flawlessly tailored skinny jeans and holding a puppy against an open-cut shirt that she’s had in her mind for _ages_ …

Marinette sighed, caught halfway between wistfulness and _drooling_.

“You’re gonna regret this,” Alya warned.

Marinette begged to differ.

* * *

> Adrialya

“Is… there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” 

“I thought I’d try seducing you,” Alya admitted easily. The beached-red ends of her hair tumbled over broad, smooth, bronzed planes of her shoulders as she turned to grin at him. “Is it working?”

“Um,” croaked Adrien through a _very_ dry mouth.

She kicked her heels, pointing her toes in a girlish pose and letting him hear the rasp of bare skin against _bare skin_ , and, to her credit, there was suddenly a lot more blood _below_ Adrien’s belt than _above_ it.

Shock still had him throwing his arms up over his eyes when she rolled onto her back, though. His partner-in-ladyblogging was really _incredibly_ attractive, but this was _really incredibly sudden._

“Adrien.”

He lowered his arms a spare few centimeters, just enough to let him see her face, but not quite her… assets.

She looked exasperated and almost on the verge of laughing, completely unself-concious despite her state of dress (or lack thereof). “Don’t tell me I practiced all these pinup poses for nothing.”

Alya. Naked. In _pinup poses._

Adrien had to swallow a few times before he could manage words. Was it possible to spontaneously burst into flames?

 _“I—_ no? Yes? M-maybe? —Oh god.”

She rolled forward, stalking to the edge of his bed like a lioness with a smile to match. “Did I break you?”

The urge to drop his arms entirely was _insane_.

“…M—… maybe?”

He couldn’t _quite_ see her rake her eyes all over him, but he felt it all the same.

“Come over here and I’ll fix you up,” she offered shamelessly, and, well…

It wasn’t like he’d never thought about it before — quite the opposite. He just hadn’t thought he was on her radar. At all.

“One question,” he managed to say without sounding too strangled, “what’s your angle?”

She blinked.

“Well, I mean, I was hoping you’d fuck me and then we could go out to dinner or something?“ Ironically, it was only the last but that got her to blush, rosy-warm under her tan. “Or just watch Batman for the twentieth time, I dunno.”

Cautiously, Adrien lowered his arms, finding Alya with a hopeful look and _still_ not a stitch of clothing on her behind them, and nearly choked on his tongue again.

“S-sounds good to me?” came out a lot weaker than he wanted it to, but she lit up all the same, and maybe it didn’t matter that much after all.

* * *

> DJWiFi

“This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had,” Nino had said. “Of course I’m in.” 

Which was easy enough to say when his girlfriend was outlining her 17-step plan for ~~world domination~~ getting their oblivious friends together, but rather more difficult to follow through with when he was standing in line to buy condoms and trying to keep a straight face.

“You owe me _so much_ ,” he couldn’t help but grumble as he tossed the box into her lap. Trying to estimate what size condom his best bro needed, while not entirely _un_ pleasant, was a kind of hell all its own.

“Oh _man_ , do I,” Alya purred delightedly, ripping into the box with something not unlike glee. “Thanks, Nino. You’re the man.”

“I try,” said Nino, trying not to think too much about his girlfriend and condoms and failing, but so was life, he guessed.

“Now,” she announced once she was done checking out the goods, and held up one foil-wrapped packet with a gleam in her eye, “for _quality control.”_

Nino choked.

(Which was the story of how they spent the rest of the night laughing themselves sick over a large collection of condom balloons.

So was life, and Nino wouldn’t have it any other way.)

* * *

> DJWiFi, fox!Alya

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.” 

Roux stiffened guiltily.

Nino, kind, patient, _wonderful_ Nino, just smiled wryly. “You do know I already have a girlfriend, right?”

Roux relaxed, her toes curling in her boots and her belly warming in pleasure. She flashed her boyfriend a flirty grin. “‘Course I do, but I’ve got _eyes_ , you know.”

 _That_ got him to falter, cheeks darkening and his smile turning bashful, and it was official — Roux _loved_ being a secret superhero. 

Then he turned that smile on her, and she was a _goner_. “…Can I use my pretty face to get a picture with you, Renard Roux?”

“Who said anything about your face?” she teased as she walked over into selfie range, maybe putting a little extra swing in her hips as she did so. 

The look that crossed Nino’s face was something she was going to treasure for a _long_ time.

* * *

> Marichat

“I can’t believe you talked me into this.” 

Chat crouched a little further behind her with a look oddly reminiscent of _fear_. “I need a fangirl buffer.”

“A buffer?” Marinette echoed, looking around and trying to take in the fancy event. “I thought you loved fangirls.”

He certainly had no issues pandering to them when _she_ was around _—_

“Only when Ladybug’s around to keep them from getting too crazy,” he argued, voicing her thoughts almost _exactly_. “Without her…” He shuddered. “Fangirls are _scary_.”

…Well.

Being something of a fangirl herself, she couldn’t exactly argue that.

“Okay, okay,” she sighed. “I’ll stick around and keep the lawsuit-worthy things to a minimum, and in return…”

She trailed off pointedly.

“A VIP pass to Gabriel’s advanced showing, I _know_ ,” he grumbled, putting her between him and a passing socialite. “Just… _please_.”

Marinette sighed again and prepared herself to face a small horde of jealous females.

Chat had _better_ get her that damn VIP pass.

* * *

> Ladynoir

“Marry me?” 

_Crash!_

“Is now _really_ the time?!”

_Tinkclinkclink—_

“What other time is there?”

**_Crash._ **

“Not! In the middle! Of! A! Battle!”

This was worse than the puns _by far_. Why oh _why_ had she started dating this doofus, again?

A strong, black-gloved hand wrapped tight around her wrist, yanking her out of the way of a stray lightning bolt a putting her between Chat and a wall.

Between a rock and a hard place, if you will.

He was panting heavily, hot breath washing over her ear and down her neck, the tension leaking out of his frame as it started to look like the akuma had missed them and was now starting to wander off.

“There,” he sighed as the akuma disappeared over the line of buildings across the street from their nook. “That was close.”

“Mhmm,” Ladybug agreed, feeling the tension leave her own frame a little more with every breath Chat took, every second of his warm weight pressed reassuringly solid and close against her, and well…

Maybe that was why.

“…So,” said Chat, turning to look at her with a kind of anxious hope in his eyes that tied her insides in knots. “What do you say? Will you marry me?”

Like she’d say no.

She went up on her tiptoes to kiss him, adoration bubbling up and over in her chest. 

“’Course I’ll marry you,” she sighed against his warm mouth, wrapping herself up in the feeling, and then drew back so she could look him in the eye.

“But _god,_ Chat,” she huffed to his dumb, overjoyed grin. “I am _never_ letting you forget this.”

Somehow, he only looked happier.

* * *

 

> Alyanette

“If you die, I’m gonna kill you.” 

Alya glanced nervously at her friend. “You… _do_ know I’ve never played this game before, right?”

Marinette blinked bloodshot eyes, the shadows beneath them gaining prominence as she slowly turned to her inept gaming partner.

Alya stared her down for one, two. three seconds, and then Marinette held out her hand for the second controller, and Alya surrendered it without a fight.

“Is that gonna…” 

_‘Work’_ died on Alya’s lips as Marinette settled one controller on each knee and _glowered_ at her computer screen for a few seconds before hitting the start button.

What followed was one of the most spectacular showings of _pure badass_ Alya had ever seen.

It took approximately ten seconds for her jaw to hit the floor, and there it stayed for the whole two minutes and thirty-seven seconds it took Marinette to beat one of the most notoriously difficult stages in the game in _multiplayer_ wile playing _both parts_ nigh _flawlessly_.

Mission accomplished! stamped across the screen in boldface font, and Alya could only applaud.

* * *

> Ladrien

“I thought you were dead.” 

Ladybug blinked, face half smooshed into Adrien’s trembling shoulder, his cologne in her nose and his shaking breath on her ear. “…Adrien?”

“Don’t _do_ that,” her crush begged, halfway to broken, and Ladybug blinked harder.

“O-okay?” she whispered uncertainly, hands coming up to cup his shoulders.

One long, shuddering inhale and he drew back, looking raw and open and a little bit wrecked, and then he actually looked at her, and he froze.

“Uh,” he said, cheeks pinkening rapidly. He removed his hands from her shoulders like she’d burned him. “Y-you know, because Chat would be pretty heartbroken, ahahaha…” He cleared his throat and looked away, ears red.

Ladybug glanced at his hands. eye caught by the thick silver band he wore on the same finger as Chat wore his Miraculous, and, almost against her will, remembered that Chat had used Cataclysm early on in this battle.

But no.

It couldn’t be… right?

She shook off the faint tremors of intuition and smiled at the boy in front of her, almost wanting to swoon as soon as she got a good look at him in return.

Adrien _blushing?_ Her heart may _never recover_.

“I’ll be careful,” she promised. Then, unable to help herself, she winked. “For Chat, of course.”

Adrien blushed darker, his bashful little smile tripping up her heart, and Ladybug swore then and there to try to earn that smile as often as humanely possible.

* * *

> Ladynoir

Okay so maybe, _maybe_ flirting with the cute station attendant on the job hadn’t been the best idea, he could admit that — and getting kissed by a stranger wasn’t _precisely_ his idea of a good time, but, you know, whatever.

Where the hell did Ladybug get off with getting _that_ pissed off about it? 

“What’s _your_ problem, anyway?” he tried not to demand as they looked through the room the station attendant had left them in, frustrated and tired and knowing full well that it wasn’t jealousy making her act like this and wishing _desperately_ that it was anyway.

Ladybug turned her nose up, shoulders tight as she dug into the shelves by the window. “Bet I could do it better.”

“Then put your money where your mouth is, miss goody two-shoes,” Chat snapped across the room, wired and a little bit too far past being able to handle… whatever this was. 

There was a beat — three heartbeats where he wondered if he should take it back and apologize for his tone.

And then her scarlet lips twisted into a grin. 

“Come over here and make me.” 

Chat didn’t realize he was moving until his shoulder hit the shelving next to her chosen workspace, the dulled impact ringing in his ears and his heart in his mouth. 

“Depends on what you’re so sure you could do ‘better,’ Bugaboo.”

She blinked at him, languid and slow, and then dropped her burning, _burning_ eyes to his mouth as she straightened. “I can think of a few things.”

… _Gnffhk_.

He leaned in, his entire body tingling in pure _craving_ , and said, in a voice that just about _growled_ without any input from him, “Gonna have to be a little more specific than that.”

A flash of white teeth bared in a smirk, and she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and kissed him like _possession._

Oh.

So it _was_ jealousy.

He was trying not to think _fuck yes_ as Ladybug shoved him back against a pile of boxes and crawled into his lap, antsy and needy and _hotter than hell_ , but, well…

She growled herself as she pulled away, blinking blown pupils down at him like she was checking her handiwork, then licked her lips and purred, “ _That_ , for starters.”

 _Fuck_ yes.

* * *

> Ladynoir

“If you keep looking at me like that, we won’t make it to a bed,” said Chat, starting to sound desperate and a little strangled after the third time he caught Ladybug trying to undress him with her eyes.

 _Busted_.

“But I’m just looking at you,” Ladybug protested innocently, heat flaring in her gut at the way he sounded and the words themselves alike. 

Chat just gave her a ragged little laugh, one that said, _that’s so ridiculous I don’t even know where to start_ , and leveled his staff at the street in front of them, despite the fact that the akuma was long-gone.

What a _dork_.

“There’s a—…” he started, and then glanced at her adoring smile and choked. “I-I mean, we, um. R-resprin— Responsility—… Super. Villain. There is.”

Which was very true, _but._

“I mean,” said Ladybug, and jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “There’s also an alley. Right there.”

And, sure, she wasn’t exactly a _fan_ of alley sex, but hey.

Chat looked at the alley. Then he looked at her. 

He swallowed and collapsed his staff with a shaking hand.

Ladybug beamed.

* * *

> DJWiFi

“We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain?” Alya demanded, baffled as she held the gadgetry her friend had dumped in her hands.

“It’s like stopping to smell the flowers, but better.” 

She wrinkled her nose at him, dubious, but he just patted her shoulder and shucked his shoes before wandering out into the downpour.

A damp, chill breeze nipped through the doorway as she stood in the relative safety of their nearly-empty classroom, and she scrubbed her arms, feeling his touch still burning through her flannel. 

Well…

 _She_ might think it was a waste of time, but…

She looked at the joyous smile on his face, at the lean lines of his body — relaxed now that he was out in the tempest — and breathed a tiny, smiling sigh, heart tight.

Maybe there was something to be said for the merits of wasting time.

* * *

> Ladynoir

“Kiss me.” 

“…Um. What.”

Ladybug threw back her head and laughed.

“That’s my price,” she said, ducking down with her hands behind her back, and it had the (probably intended) effect of doubling Chat’s blood pressure. “For one kiss, I’ll tell you one thing. Sound good?”

…Had he stepped into an alternate reality? Some other world where first patrols ended with beautiful partners asking him for a kiss?

“I. Y-yeah,” he managed, voice cracking tellingly. He cleared his throat. “‘Course, my lady.”

A glowing, beatific smile. “Then fire away, kitty.”

He swallowed around his heatbeat and tried to remember what he’d even wanted to ask her in the first place. “A-about next patrol…”

Her eyes dropped to his mouth, and suddenly that mouth was very, _very_ dry.

“Uh…” he said, breathless. “D-do you… Did you want to…” He licked his lips, and then took another unsteady breath when she tracked the motion. “Where did you w-want to meet?”

Which wasn’t what he’d been wanting to ask, but anything more than a simple sentence was beyond him right now.

She hummed absently, the noise rattling behind Chat’s teeth, and leaned in. “Does the Eiffel Tower work for you?”

The gaze on his mouth was so intense he didn’t rightly know what the Eiffel Tower _was_ , but he nodded anyway, and was immediately rewarded with a kiss.

The contact was sweet, short — barely three seconds of very, very soft lips pressing gently to his own — but it still left his entire body feeling like he’d touched a livewire instead.

Ladybug skittered back with a girlish giggle and shouted, “Thanks, Chat!” as she left.

Chat placed a shaking hand over his burning mouth and tried to remember where she’d said to meet next time.

* * *

> Marichat

“So, are you in?”

“This is _without a doubt_ the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.” 

A funny combination of emotions crossed Chat’s face. 

“What?” Marinette asked. Had she said something odd?

“…No,” said Chat, shaking it off. “Just… how did _you_ know my plans are always dumb?”

“They are not!” said Marinette hotly, hearing ‘my plans are always dumb’ and not much else. “Just, you know, some of them… oh.”

Chat raised his eyebrows at her, amused now.

“Iiiiiiii… uh.” Marinette coughed, and then tried to illustrate her point in broad gestures and probably just ended up flailing instead. “You-you know… Ladybug talks about you a lot!! Aheheheheh… urk.”

“Is… that a good thing or a bad thing?” he asked, worry mixing in with the amusement.

_Urk._

Marinette resisted the urge to stomp her foot in flustered frustration. “Of _course_ it’s a good thing.” _Dumb cat._

Did he really think she’d _insult_ him behind his back? 

“Oh,” said Chat, and looked away, ears pink. “That’s… good.”

That shyly pleased look of his was _entirely_ too cute for his own good. Or Marinette’s.

“Did you want to do this or not?” she pushed on, tapping her foot and shaking off the near miss with her secret identity. 

The bashfulness faded, and Chat beamed at her like the dork he was. 

“I _knew_ I could count on you, princess.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Marinette sighed, and wondered how she’d become her partner’s partner in crime twice over. 

At least it was always a hell of a lot of fun.

* * *

> Ladrien

“Mmmrghfff… Wh-where…? What?” Ladybug mumbled as she awoke, vision blurry and room spinning around her.

“You fainted straight into my arms,” she heard. “You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go so far.” 

“Mhh…” she grumbled, not up for anything much more intelligent than a, “Shut _up_ , Chat.”

Chat choked.

Which was odd, because it wasn’t some witty rejoinder or a snort of laughter. Ladybug pried her eyes open out of confusion.

And then choked herself.

The thing about hearing that line while half-conscious? Ladybug heard the person she _expected_ to hear it from, which was how she somehow ended up telling _Adrien Agreste_ to _shut up_.

End. her. _now_.

“S-s-sorry!” she yelped, trying (and failing) to scramble out of her crush’s arms as her face burned and her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest. “I-I-I um! Thought you were someone else!!”

Adrien, she couldn’t help but notice, was almost as red as she was. “No problem!”

‘No problem’? _She’d told him to shut up of course it was a problem_ —

“Great!” she chirped, panic crawling hot in her veins as she pushed herself up. “Just-just great! I’ll just. Be going. That way.”

“Okay,” said one mildly shell-shocked golden boy, and let her go. “Um. Good luck!”

He was too good, too pure to be _real_ , and Ladybug spared a moment to thank whatever deity was responsible for his existence.

And then something rumbled as it was destroyed by today’s akuma.

“Thanks!” she had time to gasp, and then she jumped back into the fray, Adrien waving goodbye behind her.

* * *

> Marichat

“Then tell me what you want to tell her. Just practice. It helps, I promise!”

Chat hesitated, and then:

“…I think I’m in love with you, and I’m terrified.” 

…What?

For one long moment, Marinette couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in her ears. Then she forced air into her lungs and asked, “That… _that’s_ what you want to tell her?”

There was something tired and hopeless in Chat’s eyes as he stared at his hands, something broken in the slump of his shoulders as he sat at the edge of her lounge. “…Yeah.”

Marinette swallowed and managed a shaky laugh. _Holy shit_. “D-don’t you usually ask someone on a few dates before dropping something like that?”

A corner of Chat’s mouth hooked slightly. “That’s why I haven’t told her.”

“O-oh.”

This was not what Marinette had signed on for when she agreed to help Chat get together with her alter ego, not at all. 

Still…

It was hard to reach for his hand, through the shock, but it was harder not to. “Hey.”

He looked up.

She pulled his hand over to herself and hesitated. “I think… I think you should tell her.” She kissed his knuckles, half in thought and half out of osmosis habit. “It… it’ll probably go over better than you think.”

He stared at her, frozen and wide-eyed, and then took a hitching little breath and curled his long fingers in hers, the gesture heart-wrenchingly delicate. 

“…Okay.”

* * *

> Ladrien

“Is… there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” was a very odd question to wake up to when you didn’t remember falling asleep naked _anywhere._

Adrien blinked awake, slowly becoming aware of the cool dampness of his hair and the very pink ceiling above him.

Oh right: he’d gone over to Marinette’s apartment to take a shower while he was avoiding his own house and… had passed out on her bed before he managed to track down his clothes again.

Classy.

“Uhhhh,” he said, flushing at the bug-eyed look on Ladybug’s face. He sat up, the towel slipping indecently low on his hips. “Shhhhower?”

Ladybug gulped.

Adrien concurred.

“O-oh,” she said weakly, even more faint than her first question had been.

Goddamnit. This could have been the whole ‘pose seductively in your crush’s bed’ trope and he’d _blown it._ He’d _fallen asleep._

“Sorry,” he offered with a heartfelt wince. “I missed a photo shoot yesterday and I thought that if I went home Nathalie would kill me, and…”

It occurred to Adrien that his partner was awfully silent. And awfully red.

Thankfully, he knew how to fix that.

He put his arms behind his head and stretched with a wink. “Aww, don’t tell me you like what you see, my lady.”

There. One hundred percent guaranteed way to bring incapacitated partners back from the brink: flirt with them. A flirty rejoinder was sure to—

Ladybug emitted a very faint, desperate whine.

—follow?

He blinked.

“A… a little bit?” Ladybug wheezed, a hand on the door jam.

She didn’t… sound like it was just a little bit, Adrien thought, feeling lightheaded. She kind of sounded like she wanted to jump his bones.

Which would be ridiculous, because in no universe did Ladybug want to jump his bones.

He cleared his throat. “I, uh, can put on clothes, if you want.”

She licked her lips, even _redder_ somehow as her gaze burned into his stomach. “If… if you must.”

…She _really_ sounded like she wanted to jump his bones.

His 'bones’ were of the opinion that this was a very good plan that she should enact immediately, and Adrien himself was of the opinion that the towel wasn’t nearly enough to hide an erection.

“Or I could just. Stay naked,” he croaked, even weaker than she. “That works too.”

To which Ladybug actually _growled,_ and Adrien swore to never wear clothes again — the photo shoots could hang.

* * *

> Chlonath

“Tell me a secret.”

“Why the hell would I do that?”

Nathanael just blinked at her, clear and open as glass. “Because I’ll do what you want if you do. My price is a secret.”

“Price?” Chloe snorted, irritation burning hot in her veins. “Why would _I_ need to pay _you_ for _anything?”_

The boy shrugged, and ducked down over his sketchpad, fringe shuffling over those eyes once again.

Unaccountably irritated, Chloe leaned over and made a grab for the pad.

She caught the edge of it, but her attempts to remove it and get him to _look_ at her again fell flat. He had a grip like iron.

He deigned to look at her again with those eyes, and Chloe squashed the urge to throttle him.

“Tell me a secret,” was all he said.

Chloe let go of the pad of paper with a disgusted _tch._ Folding her arms, she scowled at the wall of the little studio and, reluctantly, she cast around for a “secret” that he might accept as his “price.”

“…Fine,” she half snapped and half sighed when she finally had one. Her shoulders slumped a little in bitter defeat. “I… I fell in love with Adrien on my eighteenth birthday.”

It was weirdly like trying to reason with some ancient deity, he was so unmoving and unmoved. Given her deepest, darkest secrets, he just blinked at her.

And then he closed his sketchpad.

“Alright,” he said, as mild and smooth as he always, always, always was, and slid his long legs to the ground. “What was it you wanted me to do?”

Chloe hit the heel of her palm against her forehead and grumbled, “Teach me how to do laundry, you asshole.”

What a load of _work._

Chloe hated work.

Surprisingly enough, after he did the three requisite slow blinks, Nathanael gave her a soft, slow smile.

“Okay.”

Chloe would deny that she blushed until the day she died.

* * *

> Adrinette

“You heard me. Take. It. Off.”

And, because Marinette could be a thoroughly terrifying person sometimes, Adrien shucked his pants without further thought.

It wasn’t until he was standing around in his boxers in the middle of a crowded street that it occurred to him that maybe he should have put up more of a fight.

Marinette didn’t even seem to realize it, now sewing his loose button back on with a single-minded vengeance.

“Uh, Marinette?”

“Almost done…”

“ _Marinette._ ”

“There!” She held his newly fixed pants with pride. “What do you… ah.”

Adrien smiled weakly. “Could I have my pants back, please?”

“Uhh…” said Marinette, rapidly gaining color as her eyes stayed fixed on his boxers.

“Marinette?” he tried, more amused than he possibly should be. “My pants?”

She offered them up with a mechanical gesture, eyes not budging an inch.

Adrien bent down to retrieve his clothing, and found that someone seemed to have superglued it to her hands.

“…Marinette?”

People were staring at them as they passed, and Adrien couldn’t blame them — he’d stare at the two teenagers playing tug-o-war with a pair of designer jeans in the middle of the street too.

“ _Marinette._ ”

Marinette, eyes wide and face nearing _maroon_ , finally surrendered his pants.

Well. That would teach Adrien not to neglect his clothing.

* * *

> Ladrien

“You need to wake up, because I can’t do this without you.”

Adrien, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and breathing even against her thigh, didn’t respond.

“Chat?”

No response.

“…Chat?”

Ladybug wondered if his breathing slowing and shallowing was just her panicked imagination.

“Chat _please…_ ”

Her heart was so tight she nearly cried when his eyelids twitched. “Chat?”

Her partner pried his pretty green eyes open and blinked fuzzily up at her, mumbling, “L'dybug?”

And then gave a quiet _oof_ when she folded herself down on top of him, and cast around his waist and tears stinging her eyes.

“Don’t scare me like that,” she hiccuped to his stomach, fingers tightening in his cotton clothing.

One cautious, clumsy hand stroked the back of her head. “Okay.”

* * *

> Ladrien

“You did all this… for me?”

“I mean, it’s not _that_ much,” Ladybug demurred, pleasure blossoming hot over her cheeks and in her belly. She scrubbed the back of her head. “I just thought… Well, Marinette said you’ve been having a hard time lately, and, well… Ta-da?”

The look on Adrien’s face as he took in the little nook, the hundred-and-thirty-six candles and the mess of blankets and beanbags and pillows she’d lugged up here, said that no, it really _was_ that much.

“I, um, have food?” Ladybug offered once it became obvious that Adrien had nothing to say to that. “I-I mean, it’s just snacks, but— _meep!”_

_Was Adrien crying—_

He scrubbed his hands over his face, laughing shakily as he took her proffered bakery bag, and gave her thanks in a thick sort of voice that just about _gutted_ her.

“A-Adrien?”

“Sorry,” he rasped, giving her a smile that felt like sunrise. “You’re… you…” He shook his head and looked at the candles, the faint flush left by the almost-tears deepening sweetly. “I was just thinking that… Chat’s _really_ lucky to spend so much time with you.”

Ladybug blinked. _Chat?_

Before she could ask about why his mind had gone _there_ of all places, a breeze snuck in through her precautions and, with one mighty gust, they were standing in darkness.

Ladybug stared blankly at the space where her candles had once been lit, going hot and cold in sheer horror. It had taken her _two hours_ to light all of those.

“Are you _kidding_ me?”

“Pfffffffft,” said Adrien, the ragged edge in his voice easing in his amusement, and Ladybug immediately filed two hours of candle-lighting under ‘acceptable losses.’

She held up her own bakery bag with a sheepish look, not that he could see either well in the gentle dusk. “Dinner?”

Adrien grinned, teeth flashing white through the dark. “Dinner sounds good.”

* * *

> Ninette

“The paint’s supposed to go _where?_ ” 

“Thanks, Nino,” Marinette chirped as she tugged the paints out of Nino’s hands. She left a smacking kiss on his cheek as she went, but even the tingles of awareness skittering over his nerves couldn’t quite distract him from the fact that his friend was about to scale the school wall _that high._

And scale she did.

Like a _spider_.

Nino could only stand back and watch in amazement as Marinette clung to near-invisible ledges and leaned over, paint brush in her hand and paint pot handle in her mouth.

“Is-isn’t that kind of dangerous?” 

She flicked her paint brush at him dismissively, sending splatters of paint down the wall and possibly to the ground, and stretched out a little further to add more detail to the half-finished mural. 

Nino felt dizzy just watching her.

Thankfully, it looked like he’d arrived late in the game, because it only took a few more artful flicks of her wrist before she was leaning back at a heartstopping angle to study her work, giving a satisfied nod, and scurrying down with about five less broken bones than Nino would have expected.

“Thanks, Nino,” she said again as she handed him back the paint pot and shook out her reddened hands. “I ran out of white and had no idea what to do about the highlights. You’re a life-saver.”

“…Yeah, sure,” he said weakly. “Anytime, dude.”

Staring up at the high wall and scant footholds of the surface she was working on, Nino wasn’t sure life- _saver_ was quite the right term.

* * *

> Ladrien

“Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while…” 

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, watching Ladybug check the edges of the exit. “…Looks like.”

Unless, of course, he wanted to transform and give away his secret identity, something she was abjectly against.

Yyyyyeah, better not. If they were still here in a few hours, he’d consider it, but until then…

Well, might as well make himself cozy.

It took exactly one (1) long, luxurious stretch and soft groan for Ladybug’s head to whip around in his direction. 

One, two seconds of blatant staring and Adrien broke the silence with, “…Did you think of something?”

Ladybug’s luminous eyes flickered. “Um.”

Adrien blinked right back.

“…Did you… need something?”

Ladybug opened her mouth, paused for a second, and then said, “Your shirt.”

“…You need my shirt?” Adrien wondered aloud, and then shrugged to himself. It was fair enough, wasn’t it? She didn’t exactly have a shirt of her own to use for whatever she needed it for. “Okay.”

He grabbed the back of the neck and pulled it over his head. The rush of fabric over his ears only half-covered the strangled squawk from across the room, and Adrien shook his hair out of his eyes to give his partner a confused look.

“What?”

She was staring at him, gaping and red-faced, a daze she only seemed to snap out of when he tossed his shirt over her face. She pulled the fabric away with a frantic scramble and made a funny little gulping noise when she saw him again.

Setting a hand on his hip, Adrien told himself that she probably just wasn’t used to seeing guys shirtless or something, and that this was really _nothing_ to feel flattered over. 

“Cat got your tongue, m— Ladybug?”

“Nnnnnn…” said Ladybug, and then looked between him and the shirt in his hands. “I. I, um. Thank you.” 

“No problem,” said Adrien easily enough, scrubbing the back of his head as her breathless last two words rather viscerally reminded him that there wasn’t… a whole lot on him to hide any… inappropriate indicators of interest. “What did you need it for?”

Ladybug went a horrified shade of very, very quiet, and then: “…I don’t remember.”

….How did she get so _cute?_

Adrien bit down a snicker and wandered over, laying a hand on her back and guiding her back over to the exit. “C’mon, I’ll help you think.”

Ladybug emitted a very soft, very squeaky agreement, and let him.

* * *

> Ladrien

“Wanna bet?” 

Ladybug _entirely_ blamed her suit for the courage it gave her to duck and pose and grin, eyes flicking to his lips and voice purring, “Depends on what we’re betting, hot stuff.”

Adrien’s cocky smirk froze on his pretty red lips, his cheeks flushing as he said, “O-oh, um. Loser does one thing the winner wants, maybe?”

A parade of images flashed before Ladybug’s eyes, ones that ranged from ‘private swimwear photoshoot’ to Adrien taste-testing her bakery creations to Adrien taste-testing _her_ , and Ladybug’s flagging self-control wasn’t nearly meant to stand up to that.

“Sure thing,” was flying out of her mouth before she could even think to stop it.

Adrien grinned.

* * *

She would have won, too, if Adrien hadn’t decided to run though the obstacle course shirtless.

All the superpowers in the world couldn’t help you if you could barely put one foot in front of the other, after all.

“C’mon, Ladybug,” said the absurdly attractive _cheating asshole_ leaning a ( _bare_ ) elbow on her shoulder. “All you gotta do is admit that I’m amazing.”

“Hmmm…”

She turned to him, found him much closer (and much redder) than she’d expected, and dropped her eyes to his lips again.

Adrien swallowed.

“Oh, Adrien,” she sighed, only half exaggerated, and reached up to tap his lip. “You’re _amazing.”_

Very slowly, Adrien let his arm drop from her shoulder, his entire top half blushing darker than she’d ever seen him blush before, and Max, who’d kindly refereed for them, smacked a palm to his forehead, muttering, “ _Please_ go get a room.”

Ladybug grinned. That, good friends, was how to win at life.

Adrien: 1. Ladybug: _Infinity_.

* * *

> Adrirose

“Please, don’t leave.” 

Adrien blinked down at the tiny girl clutching his shirt hem with a look of abject horror on her face.

“Is… something wrong?”

She yanked her hand away. “Um! N-no, not really… j-just…”

Adrien moved away from the door, wondering still more at the way the lines around Rose’s huge blue eyes eased. “‘Just’?”

Rose shivered, shamefaced. “I… I hate being alone.”

Ahhh… well. 

Adrien could understand that.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he leaned against the wall next to her and slid down, folding himself down and bumping a shoulder companionably against hers as he crossed his legs. 

“I can stay,” he offered confidentially. 

A tenuous, fluttering, pretty little smile, and Rose hiccuped a giggle. 

“My knight in shining armor?”

Adrien puffed his chest and flexed. “You know it!”

The giggle turned into a laugh, and she pulled her legs up to rest her cheek on her knees. She gave him a shy smile and a quiet, “Thank you, Adrien.”

Adrien shoulder-bumped her again, and got a slightly less shy grin for his trouble. “No problem.“

Outside, the akuma roared, and together they settled in to wait for Ladybug to rescue them.

* * *

> Adrialyanette

“Please don’t do this.” 

Marinette’s boyfriend and girlfriend both looked over their shoulders at her, gleeful grins at direct odds with the black-and-red domino masks on their faces.

“ _Don’t_ ,” she repeated with a groan, burying her face in her hands.

 _How_ had she come into possession of such _embarrassing_ significant others, she wondered hopelessly as Adrien and Alya went on preparing for ‘Ladycon,’ _whatever_ that was.

“One day,” said Adrien in his utterly ridiculous Ladybug cosplay, “ _one day_ we’ll make you see the light.”

“Ladybug is love,” Alya intoned from beside the other half-packed bag, “and Ladybug is life. Stop denying the truth, girl!”

“You two deserve each other,” was Marinette’s opinion of the matter, spoken through the tangle of her fingers.

Wandering over, Alya kissed one side of her face, and Adrien the other. 

“No worries, babe,” was Alya’s. “We love you more, forever and always.”

Adrien nodded firmly in agreement.

It would have been entirely more heartwarming if Marinette hadn’t known full well that they were planning to use this opportunity to get her into a bed and a Ladybug cosplay of her own — preferably at the same time.

 _God,_ thought secret-superhero Marinette “Ladybug” Dupain-Cheng, _what on earth had she done to deserve this?_


End file.
